Jovian Parry (Canada)

In 2010 Jovian completed his MA at the University of Canterbury. His research examined representations of animals in contemporary gastronomic texts, with particular focus on the narratives constructed around their slaughter. His thesis argues that participation in the "terrible but enlightening rite" of slaughter ('Killing a Lamb Called Dinner', French 1999) is portrayed as a powerful rejection of petty urban sentimentalism, even as a deep and highly sentimental nostalgia for a pre-industrial pastoral utopia comes to the fore in these narratives. The discussion also analyses the role celebrity gastronomes such as Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall play in the dissemination of these ideologies and in the construction of "good taste".

Jovian is now enrolled for a PhD in the Science and Technology Studies programme at York University in Toronto.